Couple more thoughts. Obviously, the cars with the most rocker damage are going to be AWD, dual-motor models, since the front wheels are going to be acting as drive wheels in slippery conditions. And, I have a feeling those snow tires with the biggest block treads, ie the biggest voids, are likely to throw up more debris, along with gripping the snow the best. If you look at some of the sandblasted pics of the rear wheel well, you can actually see the tread block spacing in the paint pattern.
I was just thinking this, because I live in snowy/sandy Maine (believe me, my little town loves to throw down tons of sand), and my car came thru with a minimal amount of damage to the rockers, relative to the pics from others. I didn't swap to snow tires, yet, as I wanted to set a snow performance baseline with the OEM all-seasons before getting snows for next Winter. I'm just thinking that the vehicles with the worst damage were ones with the biggest block snow tires, on AWD models.
I was just thinking this, because I live in snowy/sandy Maine (believe me, my little town loves to throw down tons of sand), and my car came thru with a minimal amount of damage to the rockers, relative to the pics from others. I didn't swap to snow tires, yet, as I wanted to set a snow performance baseline with the OEM all-seasons before getting snows for next Winter. I'm just thinking that the vehicles with the worst damage were ones with the biggest block snow tires, on AWD models.